This weekend we dug up most of our remaining backyard lawn to make room for more vegetables. We put the lawn in when we moved in almost 8 years ago. It is pretty, but so useless. In other words, we can’t eat it. I kept looking out there, imagining how many more vegetables we could get out of our tiny yard if that space were not wasted on lawn. So this weekend we did it. As usual, I have the big idea and Dave ends up doing the heavy lifting.
This was actually pretty hard work. The sod was very heavy and our clay soil needs lots of amendment. To his credit, Dave was totally awesome and upbeat about once again doing a huge amount of work because I had a hair-brained idea. By Sunday night I think he was pretty whopped. Along with giving lots of appreciation, I made a nice husband pleasing dinner. Let’s admit it–some meals are guaranteed to make the men happy. Usually those meals involve substantial chunks of meat. This herbed roasted pork loin is delicious, easy and hard to mess up. If you have fresh herbs in your garden, you can use whatever mixture is out there. I grabbed rosemary, sage and oregano on my way to bring the big guy a nice big ice water. While I was out there, I thought of a cool trellis “we”could build….
| Herbed Roast Pork Loin |
- 1 2.5 pound pork loin rost, boneless
- 2 tsp. salt, kosher
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper, ground
- 1/4 cup assorted fresh herbs, chopped (sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme are all good)
- 1 TBLS olive oil
- Let pork sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 325.
- Sprinkle the salt and pepper on the pork.
- In a pan on the stove, brown the pork loin on both sides.
- Transfer to an oven rack. Press the herbs in all over the pork loin.
- Roast 1 hour, until the internal temperature reaches 150.
- Remove from oven, cover with foil and let rest at least 15 minutes before carving. The temperature will rise to 155.
- Slice thinly and serve with the drippings.
Wow – you’re lucky to have such a patient idea execution department. I know from experience that’s a tough job, but the good news is it will be easier next year.
Kudos on scrapping the life sucking lawn in favor of something better – you’ll have lots of great raw material for future posts too!
I think our neighbors think we are out of our mind….but they probably did already!
Only in the fondest way I’m sure. You’ll be their hero if you share some of the awesome stuff from your kitchen and soon your garden.